Okay, so if you went into this film expecting a serious, gritty action film. You were an idiot. If you went into this wanting good action, good acting, and those beautiful Power Rangers cliche’s, then you definitely won’t be disappointed…..
Power Rangers is directed by Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) and stars Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) as Jason/Red Ranger, Naomi Scott (Terra Nova, Lemonade Mouth) as Kimberly/Pink Ranger, RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) as Billy/Blue Ranger, Ludi Lin (Monster Hunt) as Zack/Black Ranger, Becky G. (Empire) as Trini/Yellow Ranger, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the Middle) as Zordon and Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, The Lego Movie) as Rita Repulsa.
Okay, so the main plot of this film is effectively the first episode of The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. These five teenagers, three of whom already met in Breakfast Club-style Saturday detention, are drawn to the same gold mine site and end up discovering these 5 ‘power coins’. The teens then discover a buried spaceship and find out that they are to become the new team of Power Rangers in order to stop the return of Rita Repulsa and prevent her from getting the ‘Zeo Crystal’ that keeps the Earth safe.
So did I like this film? I bloody loved it.
There was however, one negative about this film….the product placement. My god. I have never seen such a horrific use of product placement since Pepsi in World War Z. If you’re not aware, and this isn’t really a spoiler, Krispy Kreme plays a huge role in this film, so much so that it may be distracting. But, if you can get over it pretty quickly, it won’t ruin the film at all.
Okay, so now onto the positives. I’ll talk about a few here but honestly the list is almost endless.
First up, the acting. For five relatively unknown young actors (I only knew of Naomi Scott from Terra Nova) to hold a film that had so much relying on it is no mean feet, but these actors pulled it off. And they pulled it off brilliantly. All of the actors give great performances in their roles, of course that’s to be expected from Cranston and Banks, but the one who stands out is RJ Cyler as Billy. He gives an extremely deep performance and, although not traditionally the most important Ranger (being Blue and all), the majority of the film seems to focus on him and the audience forms a strong bond with him, leading to an incredibly emotional moment towards the end of the second act of the film.
Another pro of this film was the cinematography, especially the first two acts of the film. The camera work really helped me immerse myself into the film, despite some audience distractions. Through the use of the camera you can tell the emotions of the scene and the actors and it really helps to build the story and get a reaction from the audience.
The suits. The Power Ranger suits were probably one of the biggest highlights of this whole film. When images first came out for the new suits, people were worried they were too dark, too metallic, too Iron-Man. I can assure you. They’re not. They work amazingly well for the feel and tone this film wants to go for. And no, sadly, there is no morpher that they have to pull off their wrist and use to change into the Rangers like in the TV Shows, which does allow for this film to delve deep into the characters themselves which leads me on to my next point…
Character development. In the original Power Rangers TV Shows you didn’t really see much bonding between the normal people outside the suits, and you didn’t really know much about them outside of being the Power Rangers. This film gives you more. More depth to the characters. You get to see what makes them who they are, and what makes them keep fighting and eventually come together to help stop this evil that is trying to destroy the world. Honestly, this film had a lot more character development than it deserved to, beating the ‘character development’ in Suicide Squad by miles (though that’s not difficult as Suicide Squad had literally no character depth or anything).
Now finally, and probably my favourite, the third act. The third act of this film was spectacular and any Power Rangers fan or Action fan would have loved it. I definitely did. I won’t go on to spoil anything here but if you wanted that ‘fist-pumping’ moment that any action/Super-hero film should have, you definitely get it at the end of this film.
Okay, so that’s my review. Sadly, my movie experience was tainted a little bit by other audience members experiencing more, comedic emotions towards this film, but each to their own. Of course it won’t be for everyone, every film has its critics, but the one thing I can guarantee is that you will 100% have a great time watching Power Rangers.
Power Rangers: 4/5
Connor Mountford 